If you have some puff pastry and pears, you're in luck. You can make a bakery-style dessert in minutes in your air fryer. The pears are juicier than apples and often sweeter. A little spice--cinnamon, ginger, and allspice--adds to the pears' flavor, and dried cranberries provide a pop of tartness as well as color. Using puff pastry means no messy rolling out of dough and gives you a flaky, impressive shell for your pears. A streusel topping bakes up brown and crunchy in the air fryer and provides a nice counterpoint to the soft, buttery pears. The tarts are great warm from the air fryer and, of course, are best topped with vanilla ice cream. You can serve the tarts in their mini pie pans or take them out of the pans for serving. If you do want to remove the tarts from their pans, it's easiest to do so while the tarts are warm.
Air Fryer Pear Tarts -- Makes 4 Tarts
2 cups of chopped, peeled pears
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon of allspice
2 tablespoons of dried cranberries (or raisins, if you don't have the cranberries)
4 squares of puff pastry, each cut to approximately 4- X 4-inches
Streusel
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (6 tablespoons) of flour
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of very soft butter
Spritz 4 small or mini pie tins with non-stick cooking spray and place a puff pastry square in each pie tin, pressing the pastry into the tin gently and letting the corners hang up beyond the rim. In a medium bowl or measure, combine the pears, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and dried cranberries. Divide the pear mixture among the four tins, topping the puff pastry with the mixture. In the same bowl you used for the pear mixture, combine all the streusel ingredients and, with a fork, mix them together until large and small crumbs form. Divide the streusel mixture among the tins, sprinkling it on top of the pear mixture and pressing the streusel down gently into the pears. Spritz the struesel lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Place 2-4 of the tins in the air fryer basket (depending on the size of your air fryer). Bake the tarts at 360 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry has puffed, the pears are bubbling, and the streusel is a deep, dark brown. Let the tarts cool for at least 5 minutes before serving them.
